Epic Games Store - the console war comes to PC

[Fishy]

Discovered my first personal positive about the Epic exclusives thing. It's a fantastic impulse-purchase deterrent. Take Ashen and Rebel Galaxy Outlaw: two games I'd have picked up instantly on release if not early access had they shown up on Steam or GOG. Now that this time window has gone though, I can't be bothered. The mental hype has gone though a combination of reviews, watching it on stream, and well, a constant stream of games competing with them. For better or worse, you only get one launch.

 

[Irata]

I love the writer's sources: Superdata Research whose data comes from throwing darts at a wall, a few developers who got paid off and some average guy from SLC whose expertise is that he's been playing games since the 80's.

In the end what is Epic going to force Valve to do? A lower cut? Why should I care? These guys knew 70/30 was the cut when they decided to be game developers. It isn't like Valve suddenly raised it. Epic isn't challenging them in any way that matters to the end user.

 

[Rahdulan]

In the end what is Epic going to force Valve to do? A lower cut? Why should I care? These guys knew 70/30 was the cut when they decided to be game developers. It isn't like Valve suddenly raised it. Epic isn't challenging them in any way that matters to the end user.

This has really been one of those missed opportunities Epic did not capitalize on - if said higher percentages actually carried over to customers in the form of lower prices I imagine hell of a lot more people would be standing up for Epic despite everything else. They said it themselves they're "looking out" for developers and not customers, though. And everyone who jumped there obviously did it for money so that's that for lower prices.

 

[ultimanecat]

Epic can’t undercut Valve on games that are also on Steam (that’s literally one of the few rules Valve puts on devs concerning Steam releases) and there’s no incentive to lower prices on exclusives because that’d defeat the point of the higher developer cut.

In all honesty I’d think some of the mid-tier indie exclusives would be selling for inflated prices beyond what you’d expect for a Steam release - it goes in with the pro-developer rhetoric of “valuing” their labor, and they’ve already been paid off so there’s less pressure to lower their price to compete with similar titles.

 

[Reinhardt]

Epic can’t undercut Valve on games that are also on Steam

But epic store exclusives are NOT on steam. Or they wouldn't be exclusives...

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...-should-welcome-epic-and-their-business-model

Koch Media CEO: "We should welcome Epic and their business model"
Klemens Kundratitz says publisher is open to more exclusives with Epic Games Store despite backlash against Metro Exodus

The first major publisher to spark controversy for signing exclusively with the Epic Games Store has said it may well seek similar deals in future.

Koch Media took the decision to make the PC version of Metro Exodus only available through Epic's store for the first year, sparking outrage from some of the series' fans -- something an employee of the shooter's developer 4A Games fought back against.

That said, Metro Exodus certainly did not seem to suffer for it.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz at Gamescom, CEO Klemens Kundratitz said the company is "very happy with the commercial results so far," although he acknowledges that the exclusivity deal "caused some ripples."

Nevertheless, he stands by the decision and praised the impact Epic is having on the PC games market.


Klemens Kundratitz, Koch Media

"Overall, I'm still of the opinion like I was at the beginning that, as an industry and as a publisher, we should welcome Epic and their business model," he said.

"We have a strong relationship with Epic and we continue to have a strong relationship with Steam as well. It's just a shame that we couldn't announce this collaboration earlier. That was not perfect."

Koch has not been alone in the negative response it has received over agreeing timed exclusivity with Epic Games. Major publishers 2K Games and Ubisoft came under fire after agreeing such deals for Borderlands 3 and The Division 2 respectively, while the developers of Shenmue III, Phoenix Point and Ooblets also saw a backlash from their decisions.

Following the latter, Epic Games denounced the "disturbing trend" of harassment towards its partners.

Kundratitiz observed that such aggressive and negative behaviour is a general problem with the internet and social media, making this a "wider issue than just the battle between two digital stores." But he asserted that what Epic is doing to disrupt the space is necessary for the industry.

"As a company, we have to do the things we believe in," he said. "We make mistakes as well but this wasn't a mistake. We need to embrace a digital partner that offers a much more compelling rev share model than anybody else, and I think they act as a role model for us and for other digital partners as well -- a 70/30 split is quite frankly anachronistic."

Kundratitz's comments echo those of Paradox Interactive's Fredrik Wester, who recently described the 70/30 split as "outrageous."

The Koch CEO told us that he is open to the possibility for similar agreements for the Epic Games Store in future.

"We have many games on Steam, including many new releases like Iron Harvest. But I'm not ruling out to do an exclusive with Epic again."

While many developers have opted for an exclusive launch via Epic's store, some have openly avoided this. Unfold Games, the developer behind Darq, actually turned down a deal from Epic, while Terraria developer Re-Logic assured fans that it will never "sell our souls" to the Fortnite firm.

We spoke to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney earlier this year, who said the marketplace is "making the industry a better place" but "gamers don't see that."

 

[Infinitron]

The smaller publishers like Deep Silver and Bigben are the most likely to become Epic's bitches. They're large enough that they don't have to care about "indie cred", small enough that they need the bribe money.

Epic can’t undercut Valve on games that are also on Steam

But epic store exclusives are NOT on steam. Or they wouldn't be exclusives...

But they will be after a year.

 

[V_K]

Publishers want more money and don't care about the end user. Shocking! Revelatory!

 

[Reinhardt]

The smaller publishers like Deep Silver and Bigben are the most likely to become Epic's bitches. They're large enough that they don't have to care about "indie cred", small enough that they could use the bribe money.

Epic can’t undercut Valve on games that are also on Steam

But epic store exclusives are NOT on steam. Or they wouldn't be exclusives...

But they will be after a year.

After a year they are sale fodder.

 

[Infinitron]

After a year they are sale fodder.

We don't know that yet, but it doesn't matter. The point is Steam would force developers to release their games at the same price as they are on Epic.

Which I guess is what they should actually be doing. If we start seeing AAA games sell for $55 instead of $60 - everywhere, not just on the Epic Games Store - and developers say it's thanks to Epic, that would surely change people's mind about it.

 

[Belegarsson]

The smaller publishers like Deep Silver and Bigben are the most likely to become Epic's bitches. They're large enough that they don't have to care about "indie cred", small enough that they need the bribe money.

And then there are weird outliners like Chaosbane and Iron Harvest, or Observation, Atomicrops, several upcoming Annapurna games like 12 Minutes or the just released Telling Lies. World War Z and the upcoming Mudrunners game are obviously the result of developer's decision, not publisher. Private Division suddenly promised Steam launch for Disintegration and KSP2. Like, the most irritating thing about this shenanigan to me is how inconsistent these deals are and it's not just as simple as "blacklisting publishers", which makes seperating the bad bloods way more difficult.

Also Epic just announced 8 more exclusives which are... well, the only game I know from this list aside from Ooblets is Wattam (Annapurna). Pretty ironic that they got No Straight Roads which is published by a company called Sold Out Software.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

After a year they are sale fodder.

We don't know that yet, but it doesn't matter. The point is Steam would force developers to release their games at the same price as they are on Epic.

Which I guess is what they should actually be doing. If we start seeing AAA games sell for $55 instead of $60 - everywhere, not just on the Epic Games Store - and developers say it's thanks to Epic, that would surely change people's mind about it.

the codex version of games already costs $0

 

[evdk]

After a year they are sale fodder.

We don't know that yet, but it doesn't matter. The point is Steam would force developers to release their games at the same price as they are on Epic.

Which I guess is what they should actually be doing. If we start seeing AAA games sell for $55 instead of $60 - everywhere, not just on the Epic Games Store - and developers say it's thanks to Epic, that would surely change people's mind about it.

the codex version of games already costs $0

Yeah, but the price is outweighed by all the bitching and moaning.

 

[Tehdagah]

Also Epic just announced 8 more exclusives which are... well, the only game I know from this list aside from Ooblets is Wattam (Annapurna). Pretty ironic that they got No Straight Roads which is published by a company called Sold Out Software.

Eternal Cylinder has potential. Also lol at the butthurt in the comments.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...-should-welcome-epic-and-their-business-model

With time more studios will stand against Valve's anti-developer policies.

 

[Reinhardt]

With time more studios will stand against Valve's anti-developer policies.

And sit! And some even lie down!

 

[Tehdagah]

With time more studios will stand against Valve's anti-developer policies.

And sit! And some even lie down!

Those are Steam fans. Nobody is forcing devs to join Epic.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

With time more studios will stand against Valve's anti-developer policies.

And sit! And some even lie down!

Those are Steam fans. Nobody is forcing devs to join Epic.

And nobody is forcing devs to join Steam. Your point?

 

[Silentstorm]

I don't think anyone is forcing anything?

Epic is offering money to some developers to help make games or get exclusives, but as Darq's developer has shown, you can just refuse Epic, and like everyone who has gone to Epic has shown, you can ignore Steam, at least for a while, it just has enough people using it that it still ends up being attractive despite it's many problems.

And sometimes, developers look at both stores and decide one isn't for them, recently, Bandai-Namco said they looked at Epic, did see they have many users but still didn't feel like bringing Tekken 7 to EGS, much less make any game exclusive to their store, but they said they didn't have any problems with EGS, Steam just happens to be working out so far.

 

[Tehdagah]

With time more studios will stand against Valve's anti-developer policies.

And sit! And some even lie down!

Those are Steam fans. Nobody is forcing devs to join Epic.

And nobody is forcing devs to join Steam. Your point?

Nobody outrages when devs chose to release Steam-only games. Suddenly "studios should give choices to the consumers" isn't a thing anymore.

 

[Valky]

Steam is a de juro monopoly, so while true by technicality nobody is forcing developers to release exclusives packed with DRM, it's disingenuous. It's a lose lose situation, if you don't release on steam, then you don't get exposure thanks to steam monopolizing pc gaming, and if you do then you reinforce the continued monopolization of pc gaming by steam so that nothing ever gets better.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Because Valve isn't bribing them to release exclusively on their platform, they do it because it's convenient for both the developers and the customers. We've already had this argument multiple times.

 

[Valky]

Pretty fucking inconvenient that I have to install and run a piece of third party malware to decrypt my game executables in order to play them.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Steam is a de juro monopoly, so while true by technicality nobody is forcing developers to release exclusives packed with DRM, it's disingenuous. It's a lose lose situation, if you don't release on steam, then you don't get exposure thanks to steam monopolizing pc gaming, and if you do then you reinforce the continued monopolization of pc gaming by steam so that nothing ever gets better.

Steam isn't a monopoly, it's a market leader.

 

[MuscleSpark]

Nobody is forcing devs to join Epic.

I've always found these kind of hand-wavey arguments really miss the point. As though society and the universe are just these inert concepts that don't force people to do things.
The fact that devs have to eat (among other things) to survive, and have to obtain money to afford doing so, is a force that pushes them into taking Epic deals. The reality is that the circumstance of capitalism is creating wage-slavery, and the ability for Epic to do this kind of thing at all.

Not that I expect simpletons on an RPG forum to understand any of that.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Steam isn't a monopoly, it's a market leader.

Uh-huh. Run that by the (((Ferengi))), tell me what they make of it.